Harvest Days Milk Run 10-Miler Race Report

It is Sunday here in the beautiful, sunny, fairly cool (but getting warmer today) Northwest. How nice is it? Crossing the Columbia River from Washington back into Oregon, I could see Mt. Hood on the left (which is where HRBer Erin Foley will be participating in next month's Hood-to-Coast Relay) and up to the right, I could see the moon - in the clear blue sky!

This report is being written at 12:10 p.m. Pacific and less than an hour before check out (and still needing to get a shower), will be almost complete, but I have a story to add that you'll just go, "I can't believe some of the situations that Jon walks into."

My time for the Harvest Days Milk Run 10 Miler in Battle Ground, Washington was 1:51:30, but the course map was marked 10.3 miles "and" I heard the race director tell somebody that "that map" was charted online. That means you could have run more or less depending on what side of the "pastoral country roads" you ran on. (Anytime there was a concern with traffic or shade, I ran against traffic and in the shade.)

Hey, it was $15. $10 if I would have registered ahead. No gripes at all for that kind of price!

Two tougher hills than yesterday (in Anacortes) at mile 3.2 and 5.25 dropped me to a brisk walk, but otherwise I ran the entire way (other than only 3 water stops) albeit a little slower. Again, not bad for it being only the third time that I've run in the last two weeks.

The schedule at work is still fluid, but I think that I'm going to be able to do a lot in November and December like I wanted and now, obviously, is the time that I need to strike while the iron is hot.

I ran parts of this race fairly well, despite the time. The first three miles to the hill, I was gassed. (And I thought that I had fueled up fairly well last night and this morning.) If 3.2 miles was at the base of the hill, I was only there in 35 minutes. It was tough, but you were rewarded with one of the best views I've ever seen on a course once you got to the other side.

From almost the beginning, there was a woman who was a little bit older than me in front of me.

We both stopped at the bottom of the downhill to check on a runner (another woman) who I learned later said that she said that she thought she was going to pass out.

There was a right hand turn at the end of that road and once we both made it, I yelled ahead, "You can't get lost because I'm following you." I didn't have anything in to even think about trying to catch her. I just wanted to stay close.

There was a "5-mile mark" painted on the road (no other mile splits to then) and my watch showed 56:13.10. This was before the second large hill. She ran all the way through the hill albeit slow while I made it half way and power walked the rest of it.

We went for awhile before making a turn on a road that would prove to be close to mile 7 where it was a slight rolling hill. It was then that I decided, thinking about a quote that Kim Hager had made in her Ironman France race report about taking something from the race despite not being happy with your time, that I was going to catch her. I did. I pulled up beside her and she said something about it being downhill most of the rest of the way. (That told me she was a local.)

I tried to turn it up even more all the way to the water stop that was stated to be at approximately 7.5 miles. She didn't take on any water and passed me. I thought, "Darn!" but I couldn't bypass it. I had to get two cups of fluid in me. I noticed that the trash can was on the left side of the road heading into a curve so I asked the woman at the stop (who looked like a coach) on which side she recommended to run on (other than for the curve).

I asked this because the woman had decided to take the right side - running with traffic. I stayed to the left where there was also some shade. We passed the 8-mile mark (painted on the road) at about this time as we running up some of the slight hills. It wasn't even enough to slow you down at all. I felt good, having taken on the water, and somewhere past 8 and before a nice downhill that put us back into town, I passed her.

I hit the 8-mile mark 30:30.23 later. If it was measured accurately (maybe about as good as my Ford F150), that means I went 10:10 / mile with a tough hill - better than Sound to Narrows. Overall time, I was at 1:26:43.

I thought to myself that if I could run strong, I might be able to see a time of 1:46 - respectable given that my PR is in the 1:41 range from Pearland last December. Therefore, I tried to push as much as I could without wiping myself completely out.

There was no 9-mile mark so I had to go on feel and when I saw the lap time pass 10:50, I knew for sure that I had to have passed it. Now it was just try to hang on and not let her pass me.

I couldn't hear footsteps and there were three (3) turns where there were volunteers. I thought of asking any of them how far back she was, but I chose not to. I also did NOT look back although I wanted to. If this was for money, that would have been another story (although not classy.) I thought to myself, "If she's close, that might just give her the notion that I'm struggling and fire her up." And if she had fallen back too far, it might have been construed as what I said before - not classy. I kept running as hard as I could.

At one point, I looked at my watch and realized that it was 1:47, 1:48 and I thought that mile 10 was definitely long! (See the note above about the 10.3-mile on the course map!)

There are all kinds of things that you could say that was "wrong" about the event (3 water stops over 10 miles, etc.), but it isn't worth taking the time to type them out because they weren't significant. The people were incredibly friendly. I had a good time. I ran good for not being consistent with my running - although the time certainly suggests otherwise. I pushed myself late in the race, which will pay off later I'm sure.

There's a story that I'll update because it is one of these things that you come to read this blog for -- yes, there is a "people from Houston" story.

And, oh, by the way (again tongue completely in cheek), I finished third in my age group (last too) and picked up another ribbon. I'll scan them when I get home on Friday!